In Georgia, U.S. Marshals Service announced on Thursday they safely recovered 39 missing kids, some of whom had fallen victim to sex trafficking.

Coined “Operation Not Forgotten,” the mission objective was to ramp up investigations on missing children in the city. In Atlanta alone, over 300 girls are lured into sex trafficking every month. A study done by Georgia State University showed human trafficking kidnapped more than half of Atlanta’s homeless youth with some forced into sex and labor jobs.

The U.S. Marshal’s Office gained its manhunt reputation throughout history for tracking down some of the country’s deadliest fugitives. But this is the first time the U.S. Marshals are using their talents to locate missing children. The result can be seen not only on the faces of the rescued children but in the press release which stated,

“Operation Not Forgotten” resulted in the rescue of 26 children, the safe location of 13 children and the arrest of nine criminal associates. Additionally, investigators cleared 26 arrest warrants and filed additional charges for alleged crimes related to sex trafficking, parental kidnapping, registered sex offender violations, drugs and weapons possession, and custodial interference. The 26 warrants cleared included 19 arrest warrants for a total of nine individuals arrested, some of whom had multiple warrants.

Speaking to reporters, Chief of the Missing Child Unit, Darby Kirby said, “It’s hard to put into words what we feel when we rescue a missing child, but I can tell you that this operation has impacted every single one of us out here. We are working to protect them and get them the help they need.”

Acting Special Agent in Charge, Phil Wislar attends a press conference with our partners @USMarshalsHQ announcing the recovery of 39 missing children in Georgia during "Operation Not Forgotten". Thank you to all our partners involved!https://t.co/CtnXnmbLXW pic.twitter.com/yMC4TIAVKO

— FBI Atlanta (@FBIAtlanta) August 27, 2020

Several of the children rescued in the operation were placed in trauma centers designed to help children who fall victim to sex trafficking.

According to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children, 400,000 kids go missing every year with a child abducted every 40 seconds. The U.S. Marshals and GBI Assistant Director John Melvin wanted to change that number and took a proactive approach with the help of Republicans like Governor Brian Kemp.

John Melvin went on to say, “Evil exists and to address it requires leadership that will identify it, call it out, and deploy the necessary resources to end the problem and clean up the mess. That is why I’m so thankful for the leadership of the Trump administration on the federal level.”

The U.S. Marshal’s Office hopes to spread its operation throughout the United States, using their specific set of skills to track, locate, and rescue any child placed in an unsafe environment.

This piece was written by Jeremy Porter on August 28, 2020. It originally appeared in DrewBerquist.com and is used by permission.

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